October 04, 2008	Saturday	Shawwal 04, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 3: Though most people around the globe will start World Space Week celebrations from Saturday (October 4), due to the recently concluded month of Ramazan, observance of the event has been pushed to late October/early November in Karachi. The University of Karachi’s Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics (ISPA) will conduct its Space Week events from Oct 25 to 28 while the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) plans to observe the event from November 4 till 9.

Space Week is observed internationally from Oct 4 till Oct 10 to mark the dates of the launch of Earth’s first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, (Oct 4, 1957) and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty (Oct 10, 1967). The week was first observed in 1999 following a declaration by the United Nations General Assembly to celebrate science and technology’s contribution towards the betterment of humanity. However, celebrations in Pakistan only took off on a noticeable scale in 2005.

Dr M. Shahid Qureshi, ISPA’s in-charge, told Dawn that the two main events planned for Space Week include a seminar on Oct 25 and a poster competition on Oct 28.

“The seminar will be held at KU and technical papers will be presented. We will also celebrate the achievements of ISPA. As for the poster competition, it is aimed at college and university students and its theme is the same as that of this year’s main theme of World Space Week – ‘Exploring the Universe.’ The poster competition will be held at the Planetarium.”

The ISPA in-charge added that if circumstances allow, Karachi University’s observatory might be opened up to the public for viewing on the 27th. “It all depends on whether the maintenance work is competed by then or not. During that time of year, Jupiter will be quite clearly visible during the early evening, though it might not be suitable for viewing the moon.”

When a Suparco representative was contacted, he told Dawn that though the commission will be participating in KU’s events, its own Space Week programmes will run from Nov 4-9.

“Since Ramazan has been falling in October for the past few years, Muslim countries have been observing their space weeks in November. However, from next year we should be back to observing the event with the rest of the world,” Colonel Sarwar Shamim of Suparco explained.

When Dr Qureshi was asked if the observance of World Space Week in Pakistan over the past few years had had any significant effect in generating interest amongst the general public of matters related to space and the cosmos, he said it was not immediately clear.

“The immediate effect cannot be seen. It’ll take a while to judge. If – at a later stage – some students decide to study astronomy, then we can judge the impact.”